Commercially available poultry gizzard processing machines require that the gut and gullet must be manually severed from the gizzard and stomach respectively before the latter are introduced into the processing machine. Obviously, the cost of processing poultry is reduced as a function of the reduction in the amount of manual labor involved. To this end, the principal object of the present invention is to eliminate the manual steps of severing the gut and gullet from the gizzard and stomach before they can be introduced into the gizzard processing machine. Thus, an operator at a given station along a poultry processing line need only sever the gullet and gut from the carcass and drop the assemblage of the gizzard, stomach, gut and gullet, including the crop, onto the machine. Thereupon the machine takes over to remove the gullet and gut and to introduce the remaining stomach and gizzard into the gizzard processing machine per se.
The invention comprises a pair of rolls which introduce the stomach and gizzard onto the feed trough of a gizzard processing machine with the gut and gullet dangling therefrom through the slot in the feed trough. As the stomach and gizzard move along the feed trough toward the gizzard processing machine, the gut and gullet are engaged at the nip of a pair of gears rotating about vertical axes. As they pass through that nip a knife immediately to one side of the gears severs the gut and gullet.